Challenges
by Sea Salt Princess
Summary: Seifer and Hayner challenge each other in everything, but when it matters most, can they set their differences aside and care for one another? The summary sucks, but the story isn't half bad, trust me. SeiferXHayner Yaoi *Abuse*


**A/N:****Supskies? Aaaanyway, I am going to work on The Journey of the Sun and the Moon later today, so keep an eye out for that. I started this one yesterday, and I like the direction it's going in. It's going to be on the back burner for a while, because I want to get my main stories done right now. I hope you likey.**

**-hands out cookies-**

**Review if you want. I'll love you forever if you doooo!**

**Chapter 1**

Thank God it's Friday am I right, or am I right? I mean, the rest of the week just straight up sucks. The only days that I truthfully like are Friday and Saturday. Every other day of the week you always have school the next day. Which means you actually have to do stuff. Plus, Fridays after school, I go to the school's 'fitness room.' It's where I train for the Struggle competitions. Too bad that every Friday, chickenwuss decides to train too.

I enter the locker room, and quickly switch out of my vest and sleeveless coat. Hey, don't judge me. No one fucking asked you what you thought of my style.

I slip into my old, black t-shirt. It's relatively small on me, but nothing to flip the fuck out over. Besides, chickenwuss throws a fit over my shirt being too small and my pants too loose. The kid practically has a conniption every time he sees me. I take off my beanie, and stuff it in the locker with my other stuff. I don't want it to get all sweaty and gross or whatever.

I enter the gym, and as per usual, am the first one there. I head straight for the bar for pull ups. What do you want me to say? I fucking like doing pull ups. Got a problem? Talk to my fuckin' lawyer. After all, it's part of my ritual. Fifty pull-ups and then Chickenwuss gets to the gym.

I start my pull-ups but as I reach twenty-three, Chickenwuss enters the gym. Either I'm getting really bad at pull-ups or Chickenwuss is getting fast. I reach twenty-five before dropping down. I check chickenwuss out. He has a really nasty bruise on his arm, but other than that it seems I can go somewhat hard on him today when we practice. I'm confused for a moment, though, because he's not even in his clothing to work out. I give him a questioning look, and he turns to me, panicked.

"Seifer, help!" Hayner yells before running towards me, and hiding behind me. He's paler than a ghost, and I feel the need to slap him.

"The fuck, Chickenwuss?" I ask, turning around to face him. I'm not actually angry at him, but it's just so easy to be agitated with him. He looks past me, his eyes locking onto something in fear. I turn around to see some dumbass ready to pound his face in. I recognize the big oaf as Lexaeus. He's a senior in our school, while Chickenwuss and I are only juniors.

"Almasy, move. The kid fucking filled my locker with peanut butter! Now let me at him!" Lexaeus booms, as he steps towards Hayner and I. Pfft. If this oaf thinks he can beat me up to get Chickenwuss, he's got another thing coming. I'm the only one allowed to beat on Hayner, although he gets himself in a shit ton of trouble, and winds up getting beat around when I'm not there.

I rush Lexaeus and punch him in the face. He stumbles back a few steps until his face turns red in anger, and he begins to rush me. Hey, I'm the leader of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee, and I keep the peace. Who says I can't have fun with it? As Lexaeus rushes, I drop to the ground before he reaches me, in time to trip him, and have him fall flat on his face. His drop shakes all of the machines in the gym. Hayner is hiding behind one of the machines. I smirk at the sight of him hiding. I was totally going to hold that against him later.

Lexaeus gets up and brushes himself off. He glares at me, and then at Hayner.

"Fine. I know when I'm beat. Don't think that I won't get you, Hayner. I will." Lexaeus stomps off, and Hayner comes out of his crappy hiding place. He looks at me, unsure. I want to smile at the kid. Lexaeus _is_ pretty intimidating – for a lamer.

"The fuck was that about, chickenwuss? You've got five seconds to explain before I kick your ass." I challenge Hayner.

"I'd like to see you try!" Hayner challenges back, and he assumes a defensive position. I pick up a struggle bat next to me, and toss one of the many to Hayner.

I grab myself a struggle bat, and prepare for an attack. Hayner is rash and I know he'll attack first. So predictable. And, as I had predicted, not moments later, Hayner lunges at me. I easily dodge the attack, as I had predicted so well. Chickenwuss really has to come up with a better plan.

As Hayner leaves himself entirely open, I strike, slamming my bat into his side. He is thrown off balance, and I use that to my advantage too. I sweep my leg under his, and he falls to the ground. His face is all hot and flustered, and I nearly smirk at the thought. Hayner struggles to stand up again, and I laugh at his pathetic attempt. His face contorts into one of anger, and he lunges at me again.

Of course, I was expecting that attack. C'mon. I'm not that fuckin' pathetic. Hayner goes to swing again, but he seems to have caught his pattern. Instead, halfway through his swing, he changes to a lunge. The sheer force behind his attack catches me off guard, and I lose my balance for a moment. I gain my balance just in time for Hayner to come at me again. His attacks are in a flurry of swinging this time, and there is no way I can stop it.

I shove my bat in the middle of his swinging, and take his opening as an advantage to trip him again. I move closer, while he only just notices what I am doing. I hook my foot around his again, and Hayner begins to fall. Of course just then I notice that there is a large machine that he is going to hit his head against. He drops his bat on the way down, and I drop mine. Before my mind can catch up, my arms are wrapped around Hayner to keep him from splitting his head open.

We stay like that for a moment, me, with two arms wrapped around Hayner in what looks somewhat like a tango position, and Hayner just lying there in shock. His face becomes flustered as he rights himself.

"I didn't need your help." Chickenwuss yells at me. I scoff at him, and pick up the two bats. It's clear who won anyway. I mean, c'mon I've won every round before this one too. Hayner follows me as I go over to the rack where all of the struggle bats are held.  
"Look, Chickenwuss, unless you wanted to have your skull split the fuck open, then yes, you did. Nice fight, by the way. You finally caught your pattern, blondie." I brag. Yes, I'm blond too. No, Hayner doesn't ever notice it. He's one of those dumb-blond types. It's kind of endearing.

"Thanks, y'know, for bailing me out with Lexaeus and everything." Hayner says, his face flushing once again. I know how hard it must've been for him to say thanks to me. So of course, I make him say it again.

"Sorry, what was that? I didn't hear." I say, smirking.

"I said thanks, Seifer." Hayner says, giving me the benefit of the doubt for now. My smirk widens.

"Thanks for what? Catching you? Saving the last of your brain cells? Being so entirely handsome and charming that you knew that I'd save your ass?" I brag, and I run my fingers through my hair. Hayner curls his fingers into his palms, making fists. He's so easy to get angry. It's the best entertainment I've had in weeks.

"Yeah… well…" Hayner trails off, obviously not having a good comeback lined up.

"Nice comeback, blondie." I tease, and ruffle his hair. "Now, can I go back to my pull-ups, or will I have to save your ass again? Oh, and speaking of saving your ass twice today, you owe me an ice cream. It seems only fair." Hayner seems to process what I just said, and he tightens his fists once more.

"Hey! You'd trade me twice for a single ice cream? Thanks, Seif." Hayner pretends to be angry until he realizes that he just let the whole 'Seif' part slip. His face falls as he realizes what he just said. I could nitpick about that, I mean _no one_ is allowed to give me a nickname, but this is Chickenwuss, so I'll let him get away with it. For now.

" Oh, I would never _dream_ of it, Chickenwuss!" Sarcasm drips through my voice, and Hayner flushes again before running off to the locker room. I walk over to the pull-up bar again, and as you can fucking guess, do some pull-ups.

My mind is relatively clear in the moments that Hayner is gone, but the only things I can keep thinking about are Hayner, and how he called me 'Seif.' Not to mention the fact that I let him get away with it. If that were one of Chickenwuss's friends, they would've gotten the shit beat out of them. Well, except for Olette. Hey – I do have some standards.

I lose track of how many pull-ups I do, as I am entirely consumed in my thoughts. I do notice, however, when Hayner rejoins me in the gym. He's wearing his usual white gym shirt, but instead of camo shorts, he's wearing black shorts. This is definitely a first.

As much as I hated to admit it, he looked attractive. The shorts hugged his figure just the right way. The shirt was always somewhat nice, it hugged Hayner's incredibly thin waist, showing off the small muscles that he had. I look down to Hayner's feet to see that he's wearing his camo shoes. Guess he never could go without something camouflage.

Hayner notices me looking at him, and flushes brightly. Normally, I wouldn't think about his reactions whatsoever, but then I notice that I had stopped doing pull-ups. I was just frozen there, my chin above the bar. The bar was probably the only thing keeping my jaw from dropping.

Hayner makes eye contact with me, and I decide that it would be a good idea to start doing my pull-ups again before he starts questioning me. Hey, don't judge me. He's _my_ chickenwuss. I can check him out if I want.

Now it's Hayner's turn to watch me. I don't break eye contact, and Hayner's gaze remains on me, as I feel my muscles flex and stretch as I continue pulling. I feel a mild sweat break out, which means I must've done somewhere around 75 pull-ups by now (not counting the previous 25). Hayner shifts uncomfortably and breaks our eye-contact. I smirk in victory as Hayner walks over to one of the weight machines and begins lifting.

I smirk at the thought of Hayner trying to impress me, and I drop down from the bar. Hayner may not realize it, but he just challenged me to a weight-lifting challenge. I walk over to the same machine next to Hayner and set the weight to ten pounds over what Hayner is lifting.

I raise the bar above my head easily. Hayner glances over to me, and I give him my best smirk. I want to see how far I can push him. I know he can't lift more than me but he sure is going to try. I laugh a bit at the thought of Hayner lifting more than me. Nobody has been able to thus far, and I mean, he's Chickenwuss. He can't lift more than me. I mean, do you even see his nickname? _Chickenwuss._ Can't get wimpier than that.

Hayner increases his own weight on the machine, and I nearly scoff. So that's how it's going to be? Ten pounds at a time? This should be interesting. Again, I want to push him until he breaks. It's the most fun I get to have throughout the week.

I smirk as Hayner is breaking out in a sweat. I increase my weight by twenty pound. I see Hayner's eyes bulge in disbelief, and I nearly burst out laughing. He thought this was hard? I continue to do ten reps before Hayner raises his weight to ten pounds over what I was doing. I could see he was beginning to strain at the weight he was at. I didn't want him to pull anything. Then I lose my chickenwuss workout partner.

I do twenty more reps until I stand up. Wiping the sweat off my brow, I walk in front of Hayner. His cheeks are puffed out, and his face is entirely red. He does one more rep before stopping. He stands up, and smirks at me. He thinks he has me beat. How adorable.

Hayner walks right up to me, smirking. I smirk right back at him. I lean in my face towards his, wink at him, and then turn around. Ah, I just love screwing with Chickenwuss. His face looks confused, and then slightly angry for a moment. I grab a towel and toss it at the lamer. I grab myself my own towel. I could really use a shower about now.

Hayner follows me out of the gym. We walk in silence to the locker room. I know that we are the only ones here. Nobody comes to the gym after school on Friday. Hayner's locker is on the opposite side of the locker room.

"So, Chickenwuss, when do you want to get that project done? It's due next Friday, and I'm not waiting until the last minute to do it." I call across the locker room. Hayner's locker slams shut, and I assume he grabbed his clothing by now. I grab my own clothing and close my locker.

"I don't know." Hayner's voice calls back, closer to the showers now. I begin to make my way through the rows of lockers to the showers. "You free today?" Hayner asks. I hear him in the showers, as he turns on the shower. There are only a handful of showers in our school, and they're all pretty nasty. I take the one against the wall, because nearly no one goes in it.

"Yeah. On our way to wherever we're going you can buy me my ice cream too." I chuckle. I know that Hayner is only two showers over. I can imagine Hayner, naked, in the school, showering. Mere feet away from me. How easy it would be to just jump right in with him. Water dripping down his back. Mmm.

"Whatever. Can we work on it at your place?" Hayner's voice sounds insecure. Maybe it was the water distorting his voice or whatever, but I swear that I heard fear in his voice. I nod, before realizing that he can't see me.

"Sure." I respond. I finish up my shower, and dry myself off with my towel before wrapping my towel around my waist. Hayner follows not moments later. I walk over to the bench to grab my clothes. Hayner is right behind me. In nothing but a towel. I look at him, the way the water runs down his lightly muscled chest, straight down, underneath his towel. There are several large-ass bruises on his stomach and chest. I assume that Lexaeus did that to him. I don't look at Hayner's face, but I can see him blush brightly.

I quickly change into my clothes, putting my boxers on with my towel still on. As soon as my boxers were on though, I dropped the towel, using it to dry my hair quickly. I quickly dressed after that, putting my beanie on last. I tried to not pay attention to Hayner, who was half-fucking- naked right next to me.

I came to terms with being gay quite a few years ago, so it shouldn't be surprising that I find Chickenwuss attractive. He seems uncomfortable and squirms under my gaze though. I laugh inwardly at his actions. Looking at him isn't the only way I could make him squirm. I can nearly see it now…

I slide on my socks, my black army boots going on last. Hayner puts on his shirt, and we are both ready to go. I don't have any homework today, so I decided to leave my backpack in my locker. Not the gym locker, but my normal locker.

Chickenwuss was apparently thinking the same thing, 'cause he didn't have his bag with him either. We walk out of the school quietly, and I wave to the secretary at the front desk. She smiles politely back at me, and Hayner and I exit through the front exit. Twilight Town isn't very large, and there isn't really any need of a car. Hayner walks next to me, and I enjoy his company. We both seem very deep in thought, and we entirely pass the ice cream shop. I don't really care though. I'd rather have Hayner pay me back in _different_ ways.

We approach my apartment building. "Home sweet home." I say lightly elbowing Hayner's rib. He hisses in pain. Maybe those bruises were worse that I had thought them to be.

"Shit. That fucking hurt." Hayner complains, hugging himself. I stop as he stops walking. I can see tears threaten to spill out of Hayner's eyes. Shit. That's like my only weakness. I can't stand crying. It drives me crazy. I'd do anything to get anyone to stop crying. Doesn't matter if they just stabbed me in the fucking heart. If they were crying, I'd try to get them to stop.

"Hayner, are you alright? C'mon let's get inside and put some ice on that." Hayner nods, but a single tear falls from him face, challenging me to keep my own composure. I can't fucking stand tears. I grab Hayner's hand, and pull him inside. We take the elevator up to the eighth floor, where my apartment is. I unlock my door, and drag Hayner inside. It isn't until when I got Hayner to sit on my couch that I realized that I had called Chickenwuss 'Hayner.' He didn't seem to notice, and I hope that he still doesn't. I just can't be mean to someone who is crying.

I run to the kitchen, and grab a few towels and some ice packs. I hurry back to Hayner's side. He looks at me strangely, but I can still see the tears in his eyes. I tug at his shirt, trying to get a glimpse at the bruises.

"Hayner. Shirt. Off." I command. Damn it. He noticed me call him Hayner this time. He looked at me, some strange expression crossing his face before he complies and takes his shirt off. I get a really good look at the bruises. They seem much worse than they looked before. There was definitely some good damage done here. I toss Hayner's shirt to the side, and stand up. I push Hayner down so that he has to lie on the couch. I grab the three ice packs that I have, wrap them all in towels, and put each one on the worst bruises.

"Ow. Damn it." Hayner hisses in pain as I pressed into one of the worse looking bruises. He looks at me, but I'm not focused on that right now.

"Who the _fuck_ did this to you?" I ask. Hayner squirms, uncomfortable. Great. He wasn't going to tell me. "Hayner." I draw his attention back to me. Chickenwuss's eyes meet mine, and I see pain flicker behind them.

"M – I can't tell you." Hayner says. I can see the panic behind his eyes. If his chest weren't so bruised, I would sit on him until he gave me some answers. Instead, I lift one leg over Hayner's body, and straddle him on the couch. Our gazes lock. I can feel a few strands of hair leaning down towards Hayner.

"Hayner. Who. Did. This?" I say, the ferocity behind my voice scaring even me. Hayner shifts uncomfortably, and I pin his arms above his head. My face is hovering directly over Hayner's, and I can see the different flecks of brown in his cinnamon eyes.

"I can't-" Hayner starts, but I cut him off.

"You can, and you _will_ tell me. Only I am allowed to bruise you, Hayner. _Now tell me_." I can feel the venom behind my words. I'm just about ready to track down whoever the hell hurt Hayner and pound their face in. If Lexaeus did this, I swear to god, he will not be able to move for the next year.

"Seifer, please don't make me." Hayner begs. He tries pulling puppy dog eyes on me, but I can't let it affect me. I have to find out who did this to Hayner. I have to get revenge on him. His face panics as he sees that I won't give up.

"Too bad, Hayner. This is my fight now." I say. He blushes at the fact that I am protecting him, but his face still looks panicky. I can tell that at any moment he could push me off and dart away, so I reaffirm my grip on him.

"Fine." Hayner says, and then mumbles some unintelligible nonsense afterwards. I've just about lost my temper with the boy, and another tear leaks out of his eye. I shift my grasp so that I can wipe it away for him. I can't stand to watch him cry.

"Hayner." I say, lowering my voice. Maybe if I try a different approach he'll speak a little louder. "Can you repeat that? I couldn't hear." Hayner gulps, and more tears threaten to spill from his eyes.

"My mom." Hayner replies. I freeze for a moment, and the tears begin to flow from Hayner's eyes. I shift off of his lap, and help him sit upright. I sit down next to him, and the next thing I know, he's curled up into a little ball next to me. So much for getting that project done.

I wrap my arm around Hayner and hold him. I will never let her hurt Hayner again. He's mine, and she is no longer allowed near my chickenwuss.

"Shh, chickenwuss. I won't let her get you. You're staying with me from now on." I whisper into Hayner's ear, and his face seems to brighten a little bit. He forces a smile at me, and I smile back at him. I'm the leader of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee, and this woman was about to get what was coming to her.


End file.
